


cupcake

by wonderwheelzier



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Coming Out, F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 10:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19083526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderwheelzier/pseuds/wonderwheelzier
Summary: El smells like cupcakes, and it makes Max's head spin.





	cupcake

El smelled like cupcakes.

She found a chapstick she liked in seventh grade and stuck with it. Max came to love the smell. Young and bumbling and confused in middle school, she loved the smell secretly. She only ever got the briefest whiffs of the scent, only when she got close enough to smell it. She didn’t quite understand why yet, wasn’t even old enough to question it, but the sugary sweet smell made her head swim. She loved being that close to El, loved how they spent their sleepovers huddled together in El’s small bed, their fingers intertwined and hair overlapping. Those nights under the blanket when their breaths mingled together, their noses brushing. Those nights that made Max’s heart race, when she first thought about what it would be like to tilt her chin farther forward, see what El’s lips felt like. The cool sheets and air conditioning sending chills over her burning skin.

As they started high school they still shared El’s bed on Friday nights, but their noses no longer bumped together, and their fingers only twisted together when comfort was called for. Max tried and tried to bring up that big topic on her mind, but the smell of cupcakes, pure sugar, muddled her mind. The fear of never being close enough to smell those cupcakes again kept her words choked in her throat. It was faint enough as it was, and always getting fainter.

One day in class their sophomore year a girl walked past Max in the school hallway, carrying the aroma of sickly sweet frosting with her. It was so overpowering, so poignant, and suddenly Max was thirteen again, El's lips just a breath away. Max’s breath came short. She couldn’t focus all day, and it certainly didn’t help when the next period El slipped into the seat next to her. Max watched with an aching heart as El swiped that pink tube across her lips, lips that were far too often on Max’s mind. Max realized with a twang that it had been too long since she’d really smelled that chapstick. “Hey, can I borrow that?” Max asked impulsively. El of course obliged her with that grin that twisted Max’s stomach in knots. Max’s heart raced as she lathered her own lips in the smell of her best friend. She blushed at the thought of the gloss still being warm with the heat of El’s own lips. She knew that probably wasn’t possible, but it was a nice thought.

She didn’t realize how strong the aroma would be when she herself was wearing it, but it distracted her for the rest of the day. And as much as she loved it, it also hurt. She tried to wipe it off, but all that did was spread the heart wrenching aroma to her hand as well as her lips. It frustrated her, made her want to cry. She brushed her teeth as soon as she got home, scrubbing the gloss fully off her lips until there was only the crisp, cool, detached smell of mint.

One Friday night their junior year, Max noticed that El seemed distant, almost nervous. She hadn’t met Max’s eye all night. As they lay in bed together, Max tried to swallow down the pang in her chest as El lay as far away from Max as possible. Her heart leapt as El turned her head suddenly, catching Max’s gaze. Max would’ve been panicking, but El’s voice trembled in a painfully familiar way as she softly said, “Max?”

“Yeah?” Max turned on her side so that she was facing El, her hand lying palm up, an open invitation.

Max could see how short El’s breath was, could see the hesitation in her eyes. “Have you… have you ever thought about kissing girls?”

Max could feel her blood turning to ice - pure fear. _Here goes nothing_ she told herself before letting out a breath of, “Yeah, of course.” She was glad to see El relax a little bit, but she could tell there was more.

“Have you ever thought about dating girls?”

“Yeah,” Max nodded, her voice rough and quiet. Her heart felt like it was trying to break out of her chest. But it was worth it when El let out the breath she had clearly been holding in.

“Really?”

“I wouldn’t lie about that,” Max assured her, trying out a smile. El scooted closer then and wrapped her arm around Max’s waist, burying her face in Max’s shoulder. The action surprised her, but she quickly recovered and pulled El in closer, holding her tight. She could feel El shaking, could hear small little gasps in her ear. Max held her, and held her, and held her until her sobs subsided and she pulled back a bit.

“Sorry,” El whispered with a shaky smile as she wiped the tears off her face.

“You don’t need to apologize,” Max said softly, cupping El’s heated cheek in her hand. As she helped wipe away the rest of her tears, she studied El’s face; she hadn’t seen it this close in a while. She looked into El’s caramel eyes as she told her, “I’m really proud of you.”

El blushed and smiled. “I’m proud of you, too.” Then, after a beat, “Thank you.”

“I’ll always be here for you.” Max could hear in her own voice the weight of those words, how full they were. El must have heard it as well, as her smile changed, her eyes searching. Max’s heart was starting to race again, but El wasn’t moving away. Max’s lips quirked up in a small smile, a gesture which El reciprocated. El moved forward almost imperceptibly and brushed the tip of her nose against Max’s, and Max had the dizzying realization that she could smell cupcakes. She was suddenly hyperaware of El’s hand on her waist. Their eyes met, and the tension in the air was as physically palpable as the instinct to pull away. Here El was, her sweet breath tingling Max’s lips, and the guilt was still crawling across Max’s skin.

But then El’s fingers began to hold onto Max’s shirt, as if to pull her closer, and though the guilt and fear and panic still pounded in her veins, joy and anticipation and want flushed her skin, parted her lips. She tilted her chin forward a fraction, every nerve in her body processing nothing but _El_ , nothing but _kiss her_. And with one last breath, she did. Or maybe El kissed her, she wasn’t sure, but that didn’t matter. Because El’s lips were pressed softly yet purposefully against her own, and they were soft and warm. They tasted like cupcakes.

 

A year later Max showed up to El’s house with a Tupperware full of cupcakes. “For my cupcake,” she winked with a kiss to El’s forehead, pulling her in by her waist. El giggled and kissed her girlfriend, smile still on her lips as they moved against Max’s. That night they ate way more cupcakes than was probably recommended, the sugary sweet icing lingering on their lips, mingling as they kissed. Max was positive nothing would ever smell so sweet.


End file.
